Happy Birthday, Sadie! (11)

7490 Brompton, Apt. 442
Houston, TX 77025
713-660-7816
donshnell@sbcglobal.net

Today we got roses and carnations at Kroger’s after Easter sale. I cleaned up last week’s flowers and mixed in the roses and carnations. It was great fun. The picture on the blog is of me with last week’s glads mixed with the carnations and you can see the roses in the background. I think we’ll get home in time for me to enjoy the iris season, too. Of course I have lots of rebloomers, so there will be irises until Thanksgiving, off and on, at least.

I am feeling so regular, again. We walk and it doesn’t bother me at all. My knee hurts, but it’s not swelling, anymore, and it’s not giving out on me at all. God is so good to bless me like this!

This week is the week they ‘relax’ my treatments. The radiation is the same, but they aren’t using a technique that they used the first 3 weeks to keep the radiation close to the skin as opposed to going so deep. They used that technique every other day. This week they will not use it at all and see how my skin reacts. They watch me carefully because they want to radiate the skin enough to be sure they’ve killed any remaining cancer cells, but not enough to hurt my healthy skin too much. They want to go deep enough with the radiation to kill any sneaky remaining cells on my chest wall, but not deep enough to cause too much damage to my lung. It’s a tricky balance; they know they will cause some damage to my lung, but they want to be absolutely sure they don’t leave any cancer cells there. The pathology from the surgery showed good margins and they got all the cancer that they could see, but there could always be a remaining cell that they didn’t detect; that is the reason for the radiation. Of course I had nodes involved, too, so they are concentrating heavily on remaining nodes under the breastbone, collar bone, and arm to be safe. So far my skin is a little red and is beginning to itch from drying. I can tell that the radiation makes my skin and muscles tighter, too, so I am diligent with my range of motion exercises.

That’s probably more information than you wanted, but it’s what is real in the world of fighting cancer. Soon I will make some recommendations to you about insurance. We’ve learned a LOT and we can advise you so that you’ll be better prepared.

God is great! I am so grateful for flowers to boost my spirits every day since we’ve been here. Nearly every day of my life I have cut flowers in the house and I so enjoy them and thank God for them.